


I developed an unnatural addiction to selfies. That addiction is killing me.

by HelixDraxzonyx



Series: HelixDraxzonyx's Horror Shorts Collection [5]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Mild Gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:35:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21813793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HelixDraxzonyx/pseuds/HelixDraxzonyx
Summary: A self-employed model downloads an app that at first glance appears to be harmless, and very useful to her. Over time though, she realises that something is terribly wrong, and makes a desperate plea for help.
Series: HelixDraxzonyx's Horror Shorts Collection [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1547110





	I developed an unnatural addiction to selfies. That addiction is killing me.

_The following case file details the first incident that I investigated independently after joining The Institute, once I had completed all of the necessary training courses. It revolves around a Category 9 Magical Disturbance, which is not something a newbie like me would normally have undertaken, and it wasn't until afterwards that I learned why I was assigned the case instead of someone more qualified. It would prove to be an unforgettable assignment. The case file found its way to me in the form of the following article, posted upon a forum dedicated to strange occurrences._

Hello. My name is Sophie Whitmore. I've been browsing these forums for almost a week now, reading articles that date back to its creation, but so far I haven't seen any mention of a case such as mine. That doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence, especially as my situation is getting worse each day. It started about three weeks ago. I am what you might call a Selfie Model. I've made quite a name for myself with my selfies, and have even made a decent amount of money from them, enough so to not need any other kind of job. I've heard other descriptions of what I do, but I try my best to ignore those. I had hoped to continue living like this for a few more years at least, but now that's no longer an option.

I can trace everything back to the day I downloaded that stupid app. I should never have trusted something so shady, from a developer I've never heard of, but at the time I saw no reason to be suspicious. The app provided such a broad range of filters and effects that really appealed to me, and if I'm honest: the only thing that struck me as being somewhat sketchy was the claim that it would work on _any_ phone camera. It raises flags _now_ , but I've never been strong with technology so how was I supposed to believe that this was dodgy? I downloaded the app, and spent some time familiarising myself with its features, testing it out on the trees and flowers in my garden. Thinking back, I suppose I should have thought it strange that flowers seemed to wilt after being photographed, and that the neighbour's cat screeched at me after snapping that too. Then again, that furball always shrieks and hisses at me so its behaviour was normal to me.

That evening, I finally tried taking a selfie with one of the new app's filters. It was a perfect picture. I've gotten used to being good at taking quality selfies first-time, but I ended up feeling more empty about it than I was expecting to. I took a few more selfies over the next hour. All of them of my usual high quality, but none of them were filling me with any kind of satisfaction like they usually did. In fact, I seemed to feel more and more empty with each picture I took. I just figured that maybe I was finally succumbing to depression. I've had a lot of problems throughout my life, and although I'd managed to stay positive until then, a part of me always believed that, sooner or later, depression would seep into me. It wasn't until the next morning that I noticed something far worse was happening to me.

I woke up bright and early and headed into the shower, as per my routine. It was as I was showering that I noticed something was wrong. Something was missing, but I couldn't figure it out right away, sleepiness still clinging onto me stubbornly. As I fiddled about with my fingers, that's when I found the problem. I dismissed it as some act of my imagination at first, but when I squeezed the tip of my left middle finger again, I realised it wasn't my imagination. The bone in that part of my finger was missing. There was no evidence of it having been removed, it just simply ceased to exist. A shiver ran down my spine, despite the hot water washing over me. “What the hell?” That was about all I could muster. I stepped out of the shower, dried off, got dressed. I thought about going to the hospital, but what could I say? “Hello doctor. Yes, I'm here because a bone vanished from my finger.” There's no way I could think of to approach this situation that wouldn't have resulted in me being carted off to the loony bin. No matter how I worded it, the situation just sounded insane. Naturally, Google didn't have anything useful for me either. Unsure of what to do, I decided to simply drift around on social media for a while, hoping that I'd find something that would calm me down and help me think more clearly.

What I found instead only made me more anxious. The selfies I'd taken the night before had been uploaded online, even though I never did that myself. I assumed it must have been a feature of the app. What disturbed me was the comments on each picture. Every one of them was asking who the pictures were of. They were convinced that it wasn't me in my selfies. Feeling more creeped out than ever, I closed my laptop and tried to find some other way to take my mind off things. I noticed then that I had this compulsive urge to take another selfie. I wasn't feeling in the mood for it, as you can imagine, so I pushed this urge to the back of my mind. It didn't stay there, though. The urge just kept growing, and growing, and growing. Eventually I couldn't fight it anymore and took a few more pictures. It took me five selfies to get rid of the urge, and for the rest of the day things seemed more or less normal again.

The next day however, almost broke me. Something else had gone missing from my body. It's far too personal for me to say what it was, but it had me in tears for more than half the day. I couldn't eat, couldn't drink, couldn't even move. I just sat in a corner, crying my eyes out, until the sun had set again. I stood up numbly, my emotions paralysed, my mind almost blank with shock and fear. I opened my laptop, desperate for something to end the despair. All I found were more selfies that I didn't upload myself, and more comments talking about the subject of the photos not being me. This time though, some people were saying that these new images looked a little more like me than the previous batch. As I looked at the images, I started to see it for myself. Even though it was quite clearly me in the pictures, it was a little hard to tell that it really was me. It was like looking at a wax model of me. All the physical features were there, but there was no life in the face staring back at me, no soul. Then the compulsion came again. By this point I was pissed off by this strange desire and I was determined not to give in. The harder I fought against it though, the stronger it became. Eight pictures had to be taken before the compulsion would fade away enough for me to do anything else.

The next day, the cycle started again. Another piece of my body vanished, the emptiness inside me grew, the terror deepened. The comments on the new selfies showed that people were still struggling to identify me, despite physically being identical. The compulsion returned, quicker and stronger, and it took more to satisfy it. Then the next day came. Another piece gone, more emptiness, more terror. Less comments about people being confused by the selfies, less difficulty in identifying me. The compulsion was now practically an addiction. I couldn't stop taking selfies. I can't stop. Something is forcing me.

I figured it out about a week ago. It's the app. It has to be. That's when it all started. The more selfies I take, the more of my body I lose. It's not just my physical body that is being taken though. Something else too. As I've looked over each new batch of selfies, I've seen it, and it's getting stronger. What once appeared to be a wax replica now had life in the eyes and soul in the smile. That's why people didn't believe the selfies were mine at first. My soul wasn't in those pictures. Not at first, but a piece of it is being taken away, absorbed into the pictures each day. _This_ is something I've heard about before. Cultures where it is believed that cameras steal a person's soul. This seems more gradual though, and it's not just my soul either. Actual body parts are being taken God knows where. At the same time, the app seems to be forcing this compulsion, this addiction, into me. Day by day the compulsion gets stronger, sets in faster, and takes so much more to ease it away.

I found this place right after making this realisation, and I've been frantically scouring the forums, looking for something, _anything_ , that might help me. If anyone here knows what I should do, please help me. I've even tried destroying my phone. It won't break. I've put it in the microwave at full power for 30 minutes, I've hit it with a hammer, I've thrown it against every wall and every floor in the house. Nothing is capable of even scratching my phone. There must be something else then, something that science cannot explain. Whatever it is, I need it. I'll do anything. My time is running out. There isn't much left of me at this stage. I can't go outside anymore. I don't have any legs. I have only one working arm, minus two fingers. At this rate, there'll be nothing left of me after 48 hours, while the selfies will contain the entirety of my soul. Someone... save me!!

_I responded to this case file as soon as I was physically able to, but to my dismay, I arrived too late. At Sophie's home I found only her phone and laptop, both of which I took back to The Institute. It took some time for our Tech Division to trace the location of the app's developer, and I went after them. The developer's home had a strong magical presence to it. Inside, there were numerous grimoires and magical artefacts. I found a computer, that was hooked up to a crystalline structure. Encased inside was a multitude of dismembered body parts, all in pristine condition. A cursory glance told me there were too many body parts for just one person, meaning that the developer had claimed more than one victim. The place was abandoned recently, and it took longer than it should have for me to realise it had been abandoned_ too _recently. The developer must have known that someone would find them, and they had left a trap behind. For a brief moment I was consumed by a maelstrom of fire and lightning, then darkness fell._

_I woke up in The Institute's medical wing. I'd been out of action for three weeks, having barely survived an arcane trap. I spent the next six weeks in rehab, talking to MAIA: an advanced AI system that The Institute uses and is responsible for assigning case files. It was MAIA who told me why I was selected for the assignment, despite higher ranking field agents being available. It's because I was new. It's because I was so new that I was excessively cautious, and so I went into the assignment equipped with a protective talisman. The other available field agents would never have taken the talisman on a Category 9 Magical Disturbance, deeming it to be overkill. As a result, they would have been killed, hence why MAIA chose me instead. She knew I'd take the talisman, and that talisman is the reason I survived the blast._

_Once out of rehab, I learned that Orion had finished the assignment... in his own way. It seems that my being injured on duty provoked Orion to a severe degree, and he went after the developer. I won't go into details, but the developer is dead. Extremely dead. The app has been taken offline, but there is nothing we can do for the victims. This is not something technology can solve, and our arcane expertise does not cover something of this magnitude. While this app is no longer a threat, there are others out there. People who develop magical abilities have a nasty habit of mixing magic with technology and using it to harm people. We're tackling as many of these twisted creations as we can, but new ones seem to spring up just as fast as we shut them down. So if you truly want to stay safe: watch what you download. Use trusted developers, and keep an eye out for anything that might raise a red flag, no matter how trivial. Most importantly, remember this saying: If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Bear these things in mind, and you should survive at least this threat. This concludes the publication of case file MD9-1722169-3._


End file.
